Publications

July 1991 (Revised August 2000)
Case

California PERS (A)

By: Jay O. Light, Jay W. Lorsch and James O. Sailer

Examines California Public Employees Retirement System (CalPERS), the world's fourth largest pension fund. Dale Hanson, CEO of CalPERS, has a problem; how does he use CalPERS' influence as the holder of a small percentage of 1,300 American companies to put pressure on... View Details

Keywords: Employees; Retirement; System; Asset Pricing; Performance Improvement; Corporate Governance; Investment Funds; Investment Return; California

2025
Working Paper

Pricing of Climate Risk Insurance: Regulatory Frictions and Cross-Subsidies

By: Ishita Sen, Ana-Maria Tenekedjieva and Sangmin Oh

We study the consequences of state-level price (rate) regulation for U.S. homeowners' insurance, a $15 trillion market that provides households protection against climate losses. Using two distinct identification strategies and novel data on regulatory filings and ZIP... View Details

Keywords: Climate Risk; Homeowners' Insurance; Price Controls; Financial Regulation; Cross-subsidization; Climate Change; Household; Insurance; Price; Governance Controls; Financial Institutions; United States

SSRN

13 Oct 2016
News

Harvard Historian Explains Clinton's Abe Lincoln Moment

November 2002
Background Note

Strategy and Sources of Motion Picture Finance, The

By: Mihir A. Desai, Gabriel J. Loeb and Mark Veblen

This case considers the alternative financing mechanisms for film financing, the evolution of film finance in the United States, and the nature of tax-motivated film financing in the United States and around the world. It develops the strategy driving motion picture... View Details

Keywords: Film Entertainment; Financial Instruments; Financial Strategy; Financing and Loans; Globalized Markets and Industries; Taxation; Motivation and Incentives; Competitive Strategy; Entertainment and Recreation Industry; United States

Roberto Verganti is in the Technology and Operations Management Unit at Harvard Business School. He teaches Design Theory and Practice for the double degree program MS/MBA conducted jointly by the Harvard Business School and the... View Details

Keywords: automotive; computer; consumer products; electronics; fashion; food; furniture; high technology; home appliances; industrial goods; pharmaceuticals; semiconductor; software; telecommunications; textiles

July 2018
Article

Revisiting the Classical View of Benefit-Based Taxation

By: Matthew Weinzierl

This article incorporates into modern optimal tax theory the classical logic of benefit‐based taxation in which an individual's benefit from the activities of the state is tied to his or her income‐earning ability. First‐best optimal policy is characterized... View Details

Keywords: Taxation; Theory; Policy

March 1979 (Revised November 1980)
Case

Beth Israel Hospital, Boston

The hospital is reviewing its obstetrical services and trying to decide on future strategy relative to communications, pricing and service characteristics. Important environmental trends include increasing government health regulation, a declining birth rate, more... View Details

Keywords: Organizational Change and Adaptation; Marketing Strategy; Competitive Strategy; Medical Specialties; Health Industry; Boston

February 15, 2024
Article

What Does Banning Short-Term Rentals Really Accomplish?

By: Sophie Calder-Wang, Chiara Farronato and Andrey Fradkin

Concerns that short-term rentals fueled by platforms like Airbnb have caused long-term rents to rise in major cities has caused some governments to place limits, including bans, on them. But research of New York City found that short-term rentals are not the biggest... View Details

Keywords: Renting or Rental; Price; Policy; New York (city, NY)

October 2006
Article

How Much Is a Seat on the Security Council Worth? Foreign Aid and Bribery at the United Nations

By: Ilyana Kuziemko and Eric D. Werker

Ten of the fifteen seats on the U.N. Security Council are held by rotating members serving two-year terms. We find that a country's U.S. aid increases by 59 percent and its U.N. aid by 8 percent when it rotates onto the council. This effect increases during years in... View Details

Keywords: Foreign Aid; Governance; Value

April 1999 (Revised November 1999)
Case

Adams Capital Management: March 1999

By: G. Felda Hardymon and Bill Wasik

On February 24, 1999, the advisory board of Adams Capital Management convened for its quarterly meeting at the firm's headquarters. One point on the agenda: whether or not to proceed with due diligence on an investment in Three Points, a maker of Internet-based team... View Details

Keywords: Venture Capital; Governing and Advisory Boards; Management Systems; Investment; Goals and Objectives; Financial Services Industry

January 2023
Article

Social Networks, Ethnicity, and Entrepreneurship

By: William R. Kerr and Martin Mandorff

We study the relationship between ethnicity, occupational choice, and entrepreneurship. Immigrant groups in the United States cluster in specific business sectors. For example, Koreans are 34 times more concentrated in self-employment for dry cleaning than other... View Details

Keywords: Self-employed; Occupation; Entrepreneurship; Ethnicity; Immigration; Networks

April 1991 (Revised July 1992)
Case

Koito Manufacturing Ltd.

By: W. Carl Kester and Robert W. Lightfoot

Having acquired a 26% stake in Koito Manufacturing, a Japanese automotive parts supplier in the Toyota Group, T. Boone Pickens seeks a seat on Koito's board of directors. Koito's management resists, claiming Pickens is an unhelpful greenmailer, not a true long-term... View Details

Keywords: Acquisition; Debates; Corporate Governance; Production; Supply Chain; Performance Efficiency; Welfare; Auto Industry; Japan; United States

February 1995 (Revised February 1998)
Case

India in the 1990s

By: George C. Lodge and Ahu Bhasin

Describes the efforts of Indian Prime Minister P.V. Narasimha Rao to deregulate and open up the Indian economy in the early 1990s. Focuses on the difficulties he encountered, reflected in the poor showing of the ruling Congress Party in state elections in December... View Details

Keywords: Development Economics; Emerging Markets; Social Issues; Economic Growth; Government and Politics; India

10 Feb 2009
First Look

First Look: February 10, 2009

average in the period 1953-2005, it was particularly high in the early 1980s and negative in the early 2000s. This paper specifies and estimates a model in which the nominal term structure of interest rates is driven by five state... View Details

Keywords: Martha Lagace

December 1997 (Revised August 1998)
Case

Shanghai Real Estate (A)

By: Lynn S. Paine and Harold F. Hogan Jr

An independent consultant from the United States must decide what to do when faced with his client's apparent violation of an agreement with a third party. The consultant is American, the client is a Chinese real estate developer, and the third party is a French... View Details

Keywords: Ethics; Contracts; Cross-Cultural and Cross-Border Issues; Law; Agreements and Arrangements; Alliances; Corporate Accountability; Consulting Industry; Real Estate Industry; China; United States; France

Web

Marketing - Faculty & Research

market, Intuition Robotics received significant interest from the New York State Office of the Aging. Company management considered whether a pivot to a limited business-to-government contract, fraught with complexities, would open the... View Details

2018
Other Unpublished Work

Trump's Populism: What Business Leaders Need To Understand

By: Rafael Di Tella

In the 2016 United States presidential election, candidates from both major political parties used anti-establishment messaging to appeal to Americans, a theme that had been on the sidelines of US political discourse for decades. Donald Trump, in particular, played... View Details

Keywords: Populism; Globalization; Public Opinion; Social Issues; Government and Politics; Demographics; United States